Autosalvage Music

After forty-odd years, and several lifetimes of musical experiences, the band is back, ‘by popular demand’…Rockin’ On. All having remained dedicated musicians, they are joined now by Mark Davenport (early music instrumentalist and younger brother of Darius) and old friends, Banana (Lowell Levinger) and Sam Page. Finally based near San Francisco, Autosalvage returns…Vintage with a Vengeance! See Autosalvage at SXSW, Thursday, March 14 – 11pm!

From the mid-sixties, Autosalvage was Tom Danaher, Rick Turner, Skip Boone, and Darius Davenport.

Rick and Tom had been part of the Boston/Cambridge folk scene: Rick, playing on stages with Tom Rush, Taj Mahal, and Richard and Mimi Farina.Traveling between folk meccas, Boston and Greenwich Village, they met up again on Bleecker St. In a month, Autosalvage was formed.

The bassist, Skip Boone (Autosalvage’s living link to Fifties Rock ‘n’ Roll) was brother of Lovin’ Spoonful bassist Steve. Drummer, Darius Davenport, was out of the High School of Music and Arts. He was also joined on the album by his father, LaNoue, of New York’s Pro Musica.

Rehearsing in a shared Village loft with the Lovin’ Spoonful, the band’s first big gig was with the Mothers of Invention at the East Village club, the Balloon Farm. It was Frank Zappa who suggested the name Autosalvage, the title of their raucous opening tune.

The band signed with RCA Records, home of friends, Youngbloods and Ian & Sylvia. However, the technical personnel didn’t really know how to deal with a band both unique and loud. So…given a free rein in one of the world’s first 8-track studio, they cut loose.

Autosalvage’s self-titled album was the result. To good reviews, they were gigging in and around the Village, like opening for Richard Pryor at the Cafe au Go-Go on Bleecker Street. Rick remembers, however, “Unless you were a neo-Chicago blues band or a pop rock band. …We were just on the wrong coast.” They went separate ways.

After forty-odd years, and several lifetimes of musical experiences, they band is back, ‘by popular demand’…Rockin’ On. All having remained dedicated musicians, they are joined now by old friends Banana (Lowell Levinger) and Sam Page. Finally based near San Francisco, Autosalvage returns…Vintage with a Vengeance!

Autosalvage played at SXSW Thursday, March 14, 11pm at Esther’s Follies, and Friday, March 15, 2:40pm at the Roky Erickson Ice Cream Social at Threadgill’s.